You may guess I’m not a fan of the treadmill. You may have noticed me calling it the dreadmill. And yet here I went last night actually intending to run on the stupid thing for an extended period of time.

Stupid soul sucking mind numbing contraption. Seriously, it’s like your soul is a piece of thread that gets caught on the belt and the longer you run the more it just pulls your soul right out of you. Okay, maybe it’s not THAT bad… but then again maybe it is. I think it’s just getting spoiled by running through gorgeous scenery and now, all there is is that wall in front of you, and it never goes anywhere. It’s a safe bet to say I’m not the first to throw out the hamster in a wheel analogy (I pity those little buggers) and I won’t be the last.

Of course to make it more palatable they’ve gotten smart and put little TV’s on the suckers.

Hence, my brilliant idea.

I do not have cable at home, nor do I have a dish. I’m actually quite happy that way. The fact of the matter is that I just don’t really watch TV much at all. And it’s not this kind of I’m better than you because I’m too good for TV blah blah blah crap, because the truth is that I more than compensate for it by the time I spend on the computer. If 5% of that time were remotely productive I think I’d be doing well. It’s that or playing Bejewelled on my phone. Talk about mind numbing. But I think in the end it just became, there was nothing really on TV that interested me enough to keep me from doing other things. With the exception of football. And 24. I LOVED 24. I know, after the first couple seasons of that show, it wasn’t quite as good, and you really had to suspend your disbelief, but for some odd reason I was hooked. I did watch a season or two of Biggest Loser, though after awhile I get tired of the interviews about how we’re ‘inspiring America’ and blah blah blah. And the thing is, you can watch that without cable. They have these things called antennas, and with those you can get a bunch of channels. For Free! Really, I’m not joking. Technology is amazing these days, you know?

So a few years ago we pulled the plug on cable. It’s like, if we’re not watching it much, why spend the money on it?

It’s amazing how much I don’t miss it. Well, 11.5 months out of the year I don’t. When did every. single. bowl game. move to ESPN? Okay, I exaggerate. There were 2, out of 37, that were still on network tv this year. Really, Fox, NBC, CBS? You couldn’t buck up a little to pick up some games yourselves? I suppose all that reality TV is just to compelling to interrupt with a silly football game.

On Wednesday I did slip away to a sports bar to watch my Cornhuskers in the Gator Bowl. I figure instead of a thousand bucks a year for something (cable) that I would only want for being able to watch bowl games, maybe instead just spend a few bucks at a sports bar for the games I really want to see.

The drawback is that there’s a common courtesy when you do that, it’s to at least get SOMETHING off the menu. Sports bars don’t exactly have healthy food options. On top of that, when I’m there to watch my favorite team it’s like no worries anyway, right? Let’s just say that January 1 was a far worse day for me on food choices than Christmas.

So then I get thinking that hey, the Y has ESPN on their machines, and I’m due for a run. That’s a FAR better option for watching the national championship game than wolfing down crap at a sports bar.

BRILLIANT!

So I go, I get wired up, plug my headset in, start my run, and enjoy the game.

And hey, it was a good game. It was kinda fun actually.

But dangit, did I HAVE to turn the volume up? There’s only so much Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit that a fella can take. Talk about soul sucking and mind numbing.

Which makes me think, maybe…. maybe it’s the TV part of these dreadmills that’s so soul sucking. Every time I have tried it I’ve plugged into the tv, and it’s just been blather. After enough of some of this stuff you just want to curl up in a ball and become a vegetable.

Or maybe it’s just that, when I run, I’ve spoiled myself now because I get to get out in fresh air and escape for a bit. I don’t have to think through all the problems everywhere. I can just enjoy the process, there’s therapy in it. I’ve shut down the music more often than not any more… so maybe it just seems counter productive to be pumping in the stuff I’m trying to get away from.

Or maybe it’s just that ESPN announcers really ARE that soul sucking and mind numbing. I’m sure that’s a lot of it.

Advertisements

Share this:

Like this:

LikeLoading...

About Ron Walter

I'm just a guy who was so out of shape he couldn't run to get out of the rain. I'm taking my life back. It's not always perfect, not always successful. The victories though are greater than the defeats. I plan to keep it that way.